California firefighter accused of sparking blazes in the state's wine country
GM to lay off about 1,700 workers at Kansas plant
Ireland drops plans for hate speech law, minister says
US not responsible for violence in Mexico's Sinaloa state, ambassador says
Russian strike on apartment block in Kharkiv injures 12
Tens of thousands of bees found living in a Maine family’s farmhouse
Sullivan expresses worry over escalating Israel-Lebanon tension, calls Hezbollah strike as justice served
No. 3 Ohio State looks ahead to Big Ten schedule after rolling through nonconference games
Garrett Greene throws two late TD passes and West Virginia beats Kansas 32-28
Dubois beats up Joshua to retain IBF heavyweight title with 5th-round knockout
(CNN) — Former Los Angeles city councilman and California state Sen. Nate Holden said Friday that he was with former President Donald Trump in the helicopter ride that made an emergency landing, despite Trump saying it was former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden said in an interview with Politico late Friday. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.”
“I guess we all look alike,” he added.
Trump told reporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday that he was involved in a helicopter emergency landing with Brown, who has since rejected Trump’s account as “obviously wrong” during a phone call with CNN. “I’ve never been in a helicopter with him in my life,” Brown said.
Thursday wasn’t the first time Trump referenced the incident as something he’d experienced with Brown. In a book, “Letters to Trump,” the former president recalled the event as “a little scary for both of us.” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung pointed that out on Saturday in a post on X.
Holden said that he was in touch with Trump’s team in the 1990s as Trump was trying to build on the site of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, in the district that Holden represented at the time, according to Politico.
Holden recalled meeting with Trump at Trump Tower before departing for Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they were planning to tour Trump’s since-closed Taj Mahal casino. Also aboard was Barbara Res, Trump’s former executive vice president of construction, who told Politico that the man on the helicopter was definitely Holden.
Res recounted the experience in her book “All Alone on the 68th Floor,” where she said the helicopter landed safely in New Jersey after the pilot said they would need to make an emergency landing. She recalled Trump joking about Holden being scared on the flight, with Holden noting to Politico that it was Trump who was “scared sh*tless.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
